Madikeri, Apr 25 (Shakthi Daily, with Inputs from TNN): A native of Kodagu, Lt Col Chowrira Vishranth Nanjappa, (36 ) who died in a chopper crash at Sikkim on April 21 was cremated with full military honour in his native village at Hoddur near here on Monday April 25.
Four Army personnel were killed in Dhruv helicopter crash in north Sikkim near the Sino-India border and one of them was Nanjappa. Wreckage of the advanced light helicopter, which had gone missing on Thursday April 21, was traced in the Shiv Mandir area on Friday April 22. The bodies of two pilots and two soldiers were found at the spot, the army sources said.
The helicopter had taken off along with another Dhruv around 9.30 am from the Sewak road base in Siliguri on a routine sortie, but it lost contact with the control room around 11.30 am. The chopper was flying above 15,000 feet near the Yumisamdong area where it is snowing heavily now. However, the wreckage and the bodies were found on Friday morning.
His dead body was received by speaker K G Bopaiah, MLA Appachu Ranjan, the district officials and the citizens in Madikeri. The body was then kept in Hoddur school premises for public view.
The cremation took place in the Chowrira family burial ground. The army fired three rounds in the air as a mark of respect. The army aviation captain Mridul Kumar, Madras regiment majors Ravi and Rajesh Bharadwaj were present.
Vishranth Nanjappa is survived by his father Chowrira Nanaiah, a retired banker, mother Kanthi, his wife Nayana and one-year-old daughter Neha. They were in shock and grief. The villagers paid their last respect to the martyr.